Monday, May 3, 2010

Fragging

In the U.S. military, fragging refers to the act of attacking a superior officer with a fragmentation grenade.[1] The term originated in the Vietnam War and was most commonly used to mean assassination of an unpopular officer of one's own fighting unit, often by means of a fragmentation grenade, hence the term. Although the term is derived from the grenade, the act was more commonly committed with firearms during combat in Vietnam.

Though not necessarily true, the reason for choosing a fragmentation grenade is to avoid culpability for the killing. The grenade can be thrown in the heat of battle and soldiers can claim that the grenade mistakingly landed too close to the person they "accidentally" killed. Unlike killing with a firearm, death by a shrapnel grenade cannot be readily traced to anyone, with ballistics forensics or otherwise. The grenade itself is detroyed in the explosion, and the resulting shrapnel shows no traceable characteristics.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fragging

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